Sustainable cloud computing

Sustainability is an important subject that is part of worldwide policy agendas for economic, social, and environmental transformation. Solutions, especially for environmental issues, must be found and necessary measures be taken to address them. Cloud computing is a new technology that has been developed in order to provide a new era of applications, which will allow more efficient use of computing power. In this chapter, a thorough introduction to cloud computing is realized with emphasis on its advantages for environmental sustainability. A list of challenges in relation to the use of the technology as green technology is presented, and the reasons for using cloud computing for sustainability are explained. Finally, a detailed list of the applications of cloud computing focusing on social, business, and environmental sustainability are listed, and a number of conclusions are provided.